(MC POV)

After getting hit by Akari's tail strike, Feng Jie was out cold so we decided to leave her be for tonight and let her recover.

Of course we didn't just leave her by the ditch, especially since she was now in human form. Luna had granted her a room for the Phoenix to recuperate within the palace.

That is… She only prepared it after I had asked her to do so. Apparently everyone else seemed content to just leave her by the ditch for some reason.

Since it was already quite late, we decided to just retire for the night, which meant it was another long night of vigorous activity for me, especially since Luna had chosen to join in as well.

Night came and went quickly and I had to do the usual thing of prying myself out of the entanglement of limbs from my bed, careful not to wake any of the girls when I did so.

Using a simple Technique, I cleansed myself of last night's activities before proceeding with my usual morning routine of waking Cai Hong and bringing the half asleep dragon to the bathroom to wash up. It's absolutely heartwarming to see her rubbing her eyes sleepily while holding on to my hand as we made our way to the bathroom.

Naturally, Akari and Shiori were awake as well and both of them accompanied us while Xun Guan was still acting as my clothes.

After helping the adorable loli dragon with the brushing of her teeth and washing of her face, Cai Hong would finally be awake enough to notice her surroundings.

For the record, Cai Hong could actually do all of these herself without my help. That's why whenever I'm not around, there wouldn't be any problems either.

But when a loli dragon comes up to you with sparkly eyes and says, "Papa… Spoil Cai Hong pwease?" There's no way I could say no to that right?

Well… There's also the fact that Cai Hong looks extremely precious clinging onto me while half asleep but that's beside the point.

On a normal day, my disciples would also be waking up around this time. But seeing how late we slept last night and the efforts they had to exert to retrieve the materials for that potion, it's no wonder they hadn't woken up yet.

I was already quite impressed that they managed to gather all the materials in such a short time so there's no harm in letting them sleep in today.

With that thought in mind, Cai Hong and I headed for the dining room for breakfast, the little dragon singing a tune as she skipped along beside me.

"Bweakfast with Papa~~ Humm~~ Humm~~ Bweakfast with Papa~~ La la~~"

She's so cute.

The two of us entered the dining room expecting to see it empty but surprisingly, Brendan was already seated there with several books piled around him, his plate of food barely touched and already cold.

"Brendan?" I called out.

"Big brother Brendan!" Cai Hong waved at the same time.

Brendan turned to us and quickly stood up, "Ah! Master! Good morning! And good morning, sister Cai Hong, Akari and Shiori too."

"'Gwood mwoning'!" Cai Hong greeted him enthusiastically.

The two foxes nodded back in response, both of their attentions drawn to the books stacked around Brendan.

I nodded at him, "Umu, good morning, Brendan. Please don't tell me you've been up all night?"

Brendan looked down at the books I had gestured to and gave a sheepish smile, "Well… Not all night. I just woke up erm… Earlier than usual and thought of doing some reading myself."

I raised an eyebrow, "The Archives shouldn't be open until late morning… Don't tell me you broke in there?"

"Ahaha… I wouldn't dare, Master," He laughed, closing the book that he had been reading. "All of these came from the palace's library. I had sought permission to read them from Miss Rina in the morning and she told me I could make use of it."

"And is that breakfast?"

"Ah… Err… That was meant to be some snacks miss Rina gave me to consume while I was reading…"

Yep, I'm not even surprised to be honest.

"Right… So what were you reading about?" I asked, bringing Cai Hong with me to sit across from my alchemist.

I took the chance to look at the book titles and most of them had something to do with manipulating energies. Some I had recognised reading during my previous life here as books that touched on various alchemy techniques, even one that I had relied on quite a bit for learning how to substitute Quarks for materials.

I also spotted some history books scattered here and there for some reason, not sure what Brendan was trying to learn with those.

Brendan scratched his cheek with a finger, "Well… Despite our success with the other materials, we're still missing the final one... That liquid Origin or whatever it was... So I was hoping to find some clues about it."

"And you read all of this in one night?"

"Eh? Ah… No, Master, I read all these in about three hours? I'm just going through them again to compare notes."

I think I don't say this enough, but Brendan is really, really hard working, even more so compared to the girls. Despite his lack of talent in Cultivation, he does make use of his talent in his comprehension skills to the fullest.

No normal person can read this entire stack of books and comprehend them in a day, much less three hours.

If it was any other person, I wouldn't even believe they could comprehend what Origin was since even I couldn't understand it. But if it's Brendan… Perhaps he might be able to figure out something that I might have overlooked.

"Well, your 'breakfast' is already stone cold and it's unhealthy for you to neglect taking care of your body's needs, so let's put these books away and have a proper breakfast before I share something I found out about Origin. Ok?"

Brendan's eyes widened at my words, "Master already knows about the liquefied Origin?! As expected of Master! What are the effects of it? What does it look like? If it was 'liquefied', is it possible for it to be turned into other states? What are--"

I lifted my hand and flicked Brendan on the forehead, causing him to fall back on his chair with a yelp of surprise.

"Like I said, let's take a break first. Put those books away and we'll eat. It's not like we're on some kind of time limit here, you know? There's no rush so just take your time."

"Oww… Umm… Sorry Master. I'll go tell the servants right away."

Brendan quickly left for the kitchens after stacking the books aside, leaving me with Cai Hong and the foxes.

Yep, Brendan needs to learn how to relax… Just look at his sisters, they're so relaxed that they're all sleeping in.

"Papa! 'Bwooks'!" Cai Hong squealed, picking up one of the history books excitedly.

"Oh, does Cai Hong want me to read it for you?"

"Mnn! Mnn! Papa read?"

So cute. Why would I say no to that?

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